Abhijit Kardekar

About Abhijit Kardekar

Manufacturing and operations executive with 22+ years of global experience across shopfloor operations, industrialization, precision machining, NPI, supply chain, product-line leadership, greenfield expansion, and manufacturing transformation across India, the US, and China.For more than two decades, “know your customer” has been the compass guiding my career. I intentionally moved across operations, engineering, quality, procurement, strategy, product management, and digital transformation to understand how value flows across the full manufacturing chain, which KPIs matter most, and where friction erodes performance.My foundation was built in core manufacturing environments with Toyota and Caterpillar, where I developed deep expertise in Lean Manufacturing, Toyota Production System, industrial engineering, launch readiness, capital deployment, cost optimization, and operating-system discipline. Over time, my scope expanded into product-line P&L ownership, portfolio growth, market-facing strategy, plant scale-up, and CXO-level transformation leadership.Career highlights include leading a $20M greenfield startup program in China, managing $60M product categories, supporting 28% growth through product and channel initiatives, identifying $1.7M in value-creation opportunities, generating $3.07M in additional revenue through data-led frameworks, and shaping operations solutions linked to 7%-10% EBITDA improvement.I am strongest where operations, profitability, scale-up, and strategic execution meet — improving quality, cost, delivery, productivity, capital efficiency, and team capability while building resilient growth.I am currently focused on COO, VP Operations, GM Manufacturing, Plant Head, Business Head - Manufacturing, and divisional leadership roles in precision components, automotive, industrial products, and adjacent engineering-led sectors.Skills:Lean Manufacturing | Manufacturing Operations | Operational Excellence | Precision Machining | Industrial Engineering | Plant Operations | New Product Introduction (NPI)| P&L Management | Supply Chain Transformation | Value Stream Mapping | Kaizen | Six Sigma | TPM | OEE Improvement | APQP | Design for Manufacturing (DFM)| Cost Optimization | Industry 4.0 | Digital Manufacturing | Team Leadership|Keyword: P&L; Greenfield; Industrialization; Lean Manufacturing; TPM; OEE; Six Sigma; APQP; PPAP; NPI; Supply Chain; Cost Reduction; Capacity Expansion; Team Leadership; QCDSP; Industry 4.0; Digital Manufacturing; Automotive; Process Manufacturing

Experience

1. LTIMindtree

   Present

Education

• Savitribai Phule Pune University

  B.E, Engineering

• University of Kentucky

  MS, Systems Engineering

• The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

  Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)

Skills

• Ptc Creo
• 5s
• Design of Experiments
• Manufacturing
• Microsoft Excel
• Dmaic
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Pro Engineer
• Six Sigma
• Leadership
• Apqp
• Design for Manufacturing
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Kanban
• Marketing
• Continuous Improvement
• Team Management
• Strategic Planning
• Management
• Autocad
• New Product Introduction
• Business Process Improvement
• Mechanical Engineering
• Product Development
• Business Analysis
• Business Strategy
• Operations Management
• Program Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Industrial Engineering
• Lean Manufacturing
• Microsoft Office
• Toyota Production System
• Product Management
• Value Stream Mapping
• Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (Fmea)
• Process Improvement
• Business Development
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Machining